


Union

by Lassarina



Category: Final Fantasy X
Genre: F/M, Final Fantasy Kiss Battle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 19:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/pseuds/Lassarina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zaon promised her forever; never did she think it would end like this.  Yunalesca performs the first Final Summoning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Union

He has always been steady, measured even; he is nothing if not meticulous. She knows he would not have volunteered for this if he was not certain it would work. Yet Yunalesca watches him warily as she prepares the ritual implements; this is not something that can be undone with a flick of her fingers and a shaped spell.

He catches her hand, presses a kiss to the back of her fingers. "We will succeed," he tells her. "Have faith. I will always be with you."

She nods and lays out the last items, then steps back. She has bathed already, as has he; she strips to the skin and he does likewise, her mirror and her completion.

"I promised you forever, 'Lesca," he says. "I will not forget."

Zaon stands in the center of the circle, and she feels her blood stir at the sight of him, as it always has. As she promised it always would.

She anoints him with oil and holy water, and herself with the mirrored sigils. They both drink deep of the bitter potion she has brewed, and she gags on the taste of sage. He splutters a little and makes a face like she's burned dinner again (she was never a very good cook.) It makes her laugh, and that makes this seem less terrifying, especially when he laughs as well.

The last step of the ritual stops her laughter cold. The knife is heavy and cold in her hand. Zaon meets her eyes steadily, and keeps his hands loose at his side. He knows, and he does not try to stop her. He suggested it.

She has to close her eyes. She cannot do so and succeed.

She takes a deep breath and drives the dagger into his heart; even as his blood spills hot and red on her hands, she pulls it out and drives it into her own. They fall to the floor together, their blood mixing, and the pain is so great she can scarcely think. She cannot breathe. Her lungs are heavy and she is drowning in her own blood.

The word of power that drives a spell has never been so hard to say. Her lips shape it and her vocal cords tear as she speaks it.

She finds herself, naked and bloody like a newborn babe, curled in the protective arms of a statue. Zaon hums within her, his spirit a support and a comfort as he has always been. Such power cannot be borne for long, and she knows that setting it free will destroy her utterly, but to defeat Yu Yevon, she would do anything.

Even sacrifice Zaon.

She presses her lips to the cold stone of the statue, feeling Zaon's love wrap around her. Naked, she leaves her apartments, and strides through the streets of Zanarkand with war-paint made of her husband's blood. Naked, without so much as a staff or a ring, she faces Yu Yevon. She tears him apart and sends his soul in a seething maelstrom of magic that destroys the city along with them both, and lets herself collapse at last.

Some time later, she rises, an Unsent. Only Zaon's statue appears to have survived the battle intact. She drags it, inch by painful inch, to the heart of the ruined city. Above her, pyreflies start to coalesce into a giant being.

She has succeeded, and she has failed--but there will be others. She told the priests of her intention, and they took their leader Zaon at his word when he assured them that it would stop Yu Yevon.

Yunalesca climbs up the statue to curl up in Zaon's arms, and presses a kiss to his lips. Without him inside her to give the statue life, the stone is only stone, and cold against her lips.

Forever never seemed so short.


End file.
